A Few Blogging Bits

I thought I’d just do a brief update of a few blogging bits & pieces for a change of pace today. How is everyone doing? I do hope you’re all managing as well as possible over the weekend & that the week ahead is kind to you.

Check Your Folders

Comments I’m leaving on other blogs are increasingly not showing straight away, meaning there are probably lots of comments from readers hitting pending and spam folders. Quite a few of you have said my comments are going to spam, so for some unknown reason WordPress has a massive hate-on for me at the moment, and probably a few others, too. Just a heads up to remember to check comments folders just in case you’re missing out on any wayward comments 🙂

Need A Hosting Provider?

I’ve seen a few posts about people either considering moving to self-hosted, or needing a new provider. Do make sure you check whether or not a domain is included as this will be an additional charge to consider if not. I’ve changed since last year to take up new customer offers as the first year is typically cheaper than subsequent years, but I’ve found both TSO Host and HeyPresto packages to be very decent, offering the lowest rates but with good reliability and service.

Annual Bloggers Bash

For those in the bloggosphere, you may have come across this previously. In it’s 5th year now, it’s the Annual Bloggers Bash where amazing contributors are celebrated and awarded.

I have never been nominated for anything, nor do I ever expect to be. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to get involved because there are so many incredible guys & gals out there that deserve recognition.

I’ll be sitting down to think of my nominations over the next two days as it’s so hard to choose. And I’m painfully indecisive at the best of times! Nominations are open until the end of March (voting starts in April) and you can nominate blogs in various categories, from best overall blog to parenting and lifestyle. You can find the form here.

Will you be nominating this year? Or have you already been nominated in previous years?

A Thank You To The Blogging World

I thought I’d follow on from that to take this opportunity to say Thank You.

The Internet, social media and even the blogging world can have its negatives and drawbacks. But they can also be hugely insightful, informative and empowering. It’s hard to imagine a world without it all now, and I think it’s a great time to celebrate the benefit blogs bring to the writer, the reader and the online community as a whole.

Thank You to all of you who read, comment, lurk and like posts on InvisiblyMe. Thank You to those of who message and email and those I’m honoured to call friends. Thank You to all of you, readers and bloggers, for making the blogging world the awesome place that it is. And Thank You to the writers who share, raise awareness, elicit laughs, give advice, provide support, and inject motivation and inspiration through their blogs.

Comments on InvisiblyMe

Thank you to everyone who gave feedback in my last Mini Me Update post about liking/commenting on my blog. I picked up a few things –

Post Likes – It seems to be a common issue throughout WP blogs where the ‘like’ button doesn’t always load. I find this myself quite regularly, having to refresh the page to get it to load. I’m not sure why this happens, but if it happens on InvisiblyMe and you can’t ‘like’ a post, don’t worry about it 🙂

Commenting via WP Reader – You’ll find you won’t be able to comment on my blog or various others through the WordPress Reader. This is because I run a self-hosted blog with a paid-for theme, so it shows up a little differently; you have to open the blog itself on a webpage to be able to do this.

Notification of replies to your comments – Quite a few of you mentioned you weren’t being notified when I’d replied to your comments. This was really disappointing to hear and I’d hate for people to think I don’t care or don’t bother to respond, as I always try to, though it’s often not straight away. I’ve installed a plug-in to rectify this, so you can tick ‘Notify me of follow-up comments by email’, which will let you know if/when you get a response to your comment by myself or another reader. For anyone else having the same issue, the plug-in I’ve used is ‘Subscribe to Comments Reloaded’.

^ New notification for responses to any comments you leave on InvisiblyMe

Aw no you don’t need to vote for me lovely, that wasn’t why I mentioned the nominations – I don’t expect any noms, and now I’m wondering whether I should delete that part of this post as I don’t want it to seem like I was fishing for any because that certainly wasn’t the intention. Very kind of you to say that though! 🙂 I’m sorry you’ve encountered the frustrations with ‘like’ buttons on posts too, but interesting that the problem went away on Chrome. I have that issue on Chrome, but haven’t tried on Safari so perhaps it’ll work in the reverse for me! Thank you for letting me know lovely, I hope this week is treating you kindly xx

Caz! Great info! I’ll check my spam folder. I have to agree with you on the blogging community being so truly inspiring! We definitely find our tribes and they are so faithful, supportive, understanding, and NEEDED!!! I could go on and on! Many times Just reading other’s post have gotten me through difficult times, I hope I do that for those who need someone at times to just say, it’ll all be OK. I am not familiar with the blogger’s bash but will check it out! I love finding new blogs to follow! I did finally get your notifications on new posts to come up in my feed. Crazy thing, I’d lost you and resorted to newsletters but I GOT you now! 🙂 xo~k.

PS. I still have to write in my info every time I comment. Just an FYI.

You’r spot on re: tribes, I’m glad you see it the same way as I do. That’s why I wanted to mention the Bloggers Bash as I spotted it on another blog & wanted to keep it passing around the blogosphere. Hmm that’s odd about me disappearing – WordPress doesn’t seem to like me very much, I don’t know why. Re: writing info in for comments, I have to do that on quite a few blogs (self-hosted, paid for themes) despite clicking to save info. Not sure why that happens, sorry about that. Thanks so much for the feedback, Kim! I hope the week ahead is good for you 🙂
xx

Some useful points there I wasn’t aware of – thanks.
Wordpress is doing some strange things on my laptop this weekend all round. Links from emails or between posts are taking ages and sometimes crash, a window opens momentarily whenever I ‘Like’ anything, and I’m having to log in every time I want to post a comment – which didn’t happen before.
Maybe WP is having a nervous breakdown with so many people trying the new editor and switching back to the old one.

I’m sorry you’re having such WordPress frustrations this weekend. The issue with having to fill in details is something I find with a lot of blogs (self-hosted, paid for), but I’m not sure why it happens. Maybe WP is getting swamped and having a meltdown! Thanks for letting me know, Cathy. I hope the week treats you well xx

I have received almost 500,000 spam comments since I launched my blog more than 5 years ago…I routinely check the 100+ that come in every few days, mostly from email that are for car insurance companies…a pain, but I guess it’s part of the blogging world. I was surprised to receive a notice that I was nominated in the “entertainment” category for the bloggers bash – reminding me that it will be great to attend and meet so many of my blogging friends in person!

Hahaah, Caz; I immediately checked my spam folder and guess who was there? That’s right; it was YOU! Thanks for the heads up!
The Annual Bloggers Bash sounds fabulous. When it comes to Oz, which hopefully it will some day, I’ll definitely attend. It would be great to meet many within the blogging fraternity.
And, loved your piece re the blogging community. It’s true; there are some truly inspiring people; you being one! 🙂
xoxoxo

Aha, I’m glad you spotted it lurking in the spam folder!
I hope the Bash or something similar goes to Oz some day, that would be fantastic for you! Blogging fraternity, I like that expression. I think the blogging world is fantastic and should be celebrated, and I’m very pleased to have ‘met’ you on the travels, Carolyn, I think you’re awesome! Have a lovely week =]
xx

This reminded me of good ol’ Dr. Seuss – “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You”. Thank you Dennis, I hope you are doing okay & that your week is going well so far 🙂

Great post, Caz. I too check for comments in the Spam section, especially since I constantly find several a day. I am so glad I moderate before posting anything, else my pages would be loaded with nonsense, and possibly be a risk for visitors. Your blog is always entertaining, informative, or simply you (my favorites) .:) Me and God love you!

Sounds like you’re already on top of all the folders, and you’re right about moderating otherwise your pages would be filled with spam and nonsense. Thank you for such a lovely comment, you are a treasured member of the blogging community & I am always grateful to have ‘met’ you here, you are one amazing lady, Gail – I hope the week ahead treats you kindly 🙂
xx

I think some of your comments on other blogs go to pending or spam folders too, but it’s good most of those on your blog don’t get lost in the heaps of spam! You’re right, the like button is definitely temperamental. Thanks, Sandee – I hope this week is going well for you 🙂
xx

Aw no you didn’t have to nominate me, Tracey! That’s incredibly kind, but it wasn’t the reason I mentioned the Blogging Bash (not something I would get involved in per se as I don’t stand a chance, I just want to spread the word as that’s how I first learned about it on another blog). Ugh yes, constant spam is frustrating. You’d think people had better things to do with their time..! I hope you’re having a good week lovely xx

Not sure why your blog would be singled out for any negativity. You present helpful, useful information that would go unnoticed if you didn’t provide a voice for the invisible.
I say Bravo to you and the hard work you do to teach awareness of health concerns and ways to cope.
Thank you very much Caz.

Aw, thank you very much, you’re incredibly kind, Darnell! Maybe WordPress chooses randomly the people it decides to hate from month to month, and I drew the short straw this time around. It’s definitely odd. Thanks for the great comment – I hope the week is treating you well my friend! x

These are fantastic reminders!! Thank you! I just checked my spam file and one of your comments made it into the spam folder, so I took it out and replied to it. How frustrating! It always pays to check though–cheers!

Congratulations! Well done!
I was able to mark Like on my computer, but it didn’t appear for about an hour. I could not comment until I got to my iPad. I still have to fill in the info, however. You’re worth it! 👍

Hmm that’s so odd, I’m sorry you’re having frustrations with the commenting. It’s very kind you think it’s worth it, but honestly, if you have problems don’t worry about commenting because I don’t want to think you’re having to go to any hassle to do it. I do wonder if it’s something to do with software/browsers. Thanks for letting me know – I hope you’re having a decent week, George =]
x

Aw you didn’t have to nominate me – I wasn’t getting involved with the Bash per se, as I know I don’t stand a chance, but I wanted to nominate others and spread the word as I only found out about it from other blogs. But thank you very much, that’s incredibly kind of you! I hope you’re doing okay, da-AL, I’ve fallen behind again lately from being so ‘blah’ but I’ll drop you an email back shortly! 🙂
xx

You’re right. People talk about the drama that you see in Bloggerland, but there are also a lot of really nice people out there, helping and supporting one another. It’s important to stop and think about that too. I’ve met some lovely, kind people through blogging, including you, and especially when people take a bit of time to give a meaningful comment, it’s a good way to get to know them better and form friendships. I’m not a fan of big social events, but blogging gives us the chance to get to know others without even leaving our home – and I think that’s something worth celebrating 🙂

I think you have to take the bad with the good with blogging, but there’s so much good. You’re absolutely right, that community aspect, ‘meeting’ new people through it, learning, all of that is definitely worth celebrating. Thanks for the comment, Kirsty! I hope you’re having a decent week 🙂
xx

Hi Caz, thankfully you’re not in my spam folder and I’m able to comment from my laptop on your site. So I’m problem-free ((cross fingers!)) ~ You deserve every like and comment as your site has grown to be one of my faves xo

Woohooo, I’m glad there’s nothing in spam & you don’t have any issues with commenting here. Thanks for letting me know! You already know I think very highly of you and what you bring to the blogging world, Christy, but it it makes my day to think that you like my blog, it means a lot! I hope you’re having a good week so far =]
xx

Yes! I can’t emphasize looking in the spam folder for comments enough. I find stuff in there all the time. If someone usually comments on your posts and you don’t see them, they might be in the spam folder.

You thank us, but I want to thank you. Your content is enlightening and enlifting. I’m so glad you write and am thankful for the hard work you do.

Exactly the same issue has started two days ago with the missing comments. Some sites work perfectly others not so good, Had problems with likes forvweeks. I like something then the next day is unliked itself.

Hmm it’s weird, seems WordPress is being rather temperamental all round. Thanks for letting me know, seems I’m not the only one experiencing issues. Perhaps with the amount of activity in the blogging world WordPress is having a meltdown! x